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Monday, September 26, 2011

Minnesota Monday- Wonderstruck

I read the book Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick this week.

It is an amazing book and it starts in Minnesota. Gunflint Lake, Minnesota. Like Hugo Cabret this story is told in words and pictures. The words tell the story of Ben and the pictures share the story of Rose.

Ben's story starts in Gunflint Lake and Rose's begins in New Jersey but both stories lead to New York City and the American Museum of Natural History. Both characters are deaf.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a beautiful story told in words and pictures, Minnesota, museums, dioramas, love, and New York City.

Even though I picked this book up because of the Minnesota connection I also love the AMNH connection. When my brother lived in NYC this was his favorite museum so he took us there on one of our visits. My brother seemed to know a lot about this museum. I loved this museum and was reminded of it when I visited The Field Museum in Chicago.

Being around taxidermy animals reminds me of the art classes I took in college. My college had a large room full of taxidermy birds that the art and ornithology classes used. I know it had a real name but we all called it The Dead Bird Museum because the birds were usually behind glass in little bird dioramas. Below is one of my drawings from the dead bird museum.

Selznick has several tour dates for this book in the Twin Cities in October. A list is here.

I like reading books that take place in locales that are familiar to me. I like the "Body Farm" series of books by Jefferson Bass since they take place in the area of Tennessee that I think of as home. Not to mention that half of the writing team, William Bass, was my anthropology professor in college.